by L V Chase
My first impulse is to run forward and shout a warning, but that's not what Grayson Voss would do, so I follow along, slowly. Neither of them's seen me.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out what Aurora's probably going to do. Cin's carrying her canvas, and Aurora's walking towards her with purposeful, fast strides. I grit my teeth as I watch. Aurora's a real bitch. She's getting nothing out of this except some cheap thrills. With me, it's different. At first, it was about protecting my name and making sure no one else dared go against me. Now, it's about protecting her.
Aurora says something to Cin, who stops and turns around. Aurora lunges for her canvas, and to my surprise, Cin whacks Aurora on the arm with her canvas. Then, she swings it wildly at Aurora's head. Aurora stumbles and almost falls while trying to avoid Cin. She yells and runs off in a different direction.
I realize, then, that Cin's canvas is blank. She was playing Aurora the whole time. I laugh as I walk forward. That's the Cin I know. The Cin that I can't keep away from. I'm about to call out to her, but Cin hasn't seen me yet. She continues on her way towards a building’s side entrance.
I change my mind and decide to follow at a distance. She goes into the library, and ten seconds later, I'm in the library, too. I don't see Cin, but then she steps out from between two shelves on my right.
"Grayson, you following me?" Cin asks.
I shrug. "I saw what you did to Aurora. Nice work." I point to her blank which is warped from when she smacked Aurora.
I glance around to see if anyone's seen us, but the library's mostly empty. Still, it doesn't hurt to be cautious. I take Cin by the hand, and we weave our way through the shelves until we reach the corner with the stacks. I pull Cin close to me, reaching for a kiss, but she raises a hand to stop me.
"I…I don't know if I want this," Cin says.
I raise an eyebrow. "You don't want me?" I run my hand through her hair, letting my thumb trace a line behind her ear. She inhales sharply.
She grabs my hand with hers, stopping me. "I don't know how long I can do this. You bullying. Pretending to bully. Whatever."
"You know why it has to be like that." Even as I say the words, though, I’m not sure that even I’m convinced. I see the doubt in her eyes, too.
"It has to change," Cin says.
I shake my head. "It doesn't work like that, I told you—"
Cin pulls her hand away from me. "This isn't like one of your stupid lessons. You don't get to decide—"
I grab her hand. "Of course I fucking get to decide. Do you have any idea of what—"
Cin shakes my hand free. "Do you always have to be like that? God, I thought you might be something more than a fucking asshole. I can't believe I fell for your bullshit twice."
She takes a step past me, but I grab her canvas to stop her. "Don't walk away, Cin. You know I can make you pay. I can find your real artwork. Want me to do that?"
I don't know why I threaten her like that. It's the first thing that pops into my head. All I know is that I don't want her to walk away.
Cin scowls. "As if you and Aurora haven't done worse already?"
Aurora? Why the hell's she need to group me with Aurora? That pisses me off more than anything Cin's said so far. I step closer to Cin, and she shrinks. I lower my face so that it’s level with hers.
"Compared to me, she's nothing. You have no idea what a real fucking Voss can do."
We stare at each other. I can smell her, and I'm an inch away from melting into her, but I know that's not what either of us needs right now. At least that's what I tell myself as I rip myself away from her green eyes and head towards the library's exit.
I nearly stop when I spot someone standing by the library doors. It's Melanie or Melody, I'm not sure, although she's definitely one of Aurora's. She's wearing a light blue dress and white heels with permed blonde hair, looking completely out of place in the library. But the most absurd part is that she's currently studying the fire emergency plans posted next to the door.
She must have noticed me and Cin. How much did she see? Cin's still back in the stacks, but I don't want to take any chances that she'd tell Aurora something I don't want.
I meet her eyes when she glances in my direction. I smile as I let my gaze drop to her long sleek legs. Then, I meet her dull blue eyes.
"Looking good." I shake my head and gesture backwards towards the stacks. "Can you believe the trash they let walk around here these days? Wish we had more like you."
Aurora's girl is smiling but not in the right way. She's not lapping up my comments like the good little bitch she's supposed to be. She's smirking like she's got a secret that she can't wait to spill. I consider threatening her to keep her mouth shut, but making it seem like I care might just end up making things worse.
It's Cin, damn it. Cin's doing this to me. Whenever she's involved, I feel like I'm losing control.
I slam the door on the way out.
31
Grayson
My body sways to the left, slamming into the inside of the car door as I make a hard right. My tires screech, but their grip holds, and then I'm making a hard left, my body swinging the other way.
I've driven Devil Tail too many times to count. Sixty on the switchbacks is risky. Seventy is reckless. Eighty is insanity. I'm pushing eighty-five.
I survive.
I'm on the straightway now, after the road's leveled off. I ease off the accelerator and coast. My heartrate's still racing, my hands tinged with sweat, my jaw muscles tight. And I feel exactly the same as when I started at the top of the mountain. Fucking hell.
I can't outrun Cin. I can't outrace my thoughts of her here no matter how hard I try.
My phone rings. It's late, and Eric knows not to bother me when I'm going for one of my driving runs. No one else has my number or dares to call me, same thing. I answer the call without looking at it, switch to speakerphone, and toss my phone on the passenger seat to my right.
I gun the gas. Dad's voice fills the car, barely audible over the purr of the engine. I can't make out what's he's saying.
"What?" I ask. "It's loud here."
He shouts at me, but I barely register it. "I know you can hear me, Grayson. You never got back to me about Brady's girl. You have a handle on it or not? I'm meeting him next Saturday."
Fuck. After I sent that call girl over, Dad stopped bothering me for a bit, but I barely have a plan for his project. All I know is that I’m not putting Cin through that. Fuck Brady, that fat pig.
"I'm working on it," I reply.
Dad starts yelling something, but I hang up on him and mute the ringer. I don't want to deal with Dad's shit. All I want is to get Cin out of my head, and if I can't do that...
I drive another mile or so with nothing but the hum of the road, when I can't put things off any longer. I pull over to the shoulder and grab my phone. It has five missed calls from Dad, but I ignore them. Instead, I text Cin.
Meet me at school. Football field by the bleachers. In fifteen minutes.
After a second, I type another line.
Please. -G
I stare at the phone for a moment, not really expecting an immediate reply. Then, I shut it off and drive straight to the sports arena. I don't look at my phone after I get out of my car, not even to check the time. I walk straight to the chain link fence, unhook the unlocked gate, and cross the football field to arrive at the bleachers.
And she's there, waiting for me, the night's breeze sending a lock of hair across her face. She brushes the hair away before crossing her arms, watching me as I approach. I'd be lying if I said I was sure she was going to be there.
I grin at her. "I knew you'd come."
Cin rolls her eyes. "I only came because you asked nicely. What is it?"
"I wanted to see you." I take a step towards her but she raises a hand.
"I told you. This doesn't work for me. Not like this."
"And I told you why it has to be like this."
Cin frowns as she
shakes head. "And I thought you came to apologize or something," she says softly. "You are...fucking impossible."
"Didn't you hear anything I said before? And it's not just Aurora..." I can't tell her about what Dad asked me to do. "Look, you've gotten a taste of what my family is like, not just Aurora. Trust me, you want to stay the hell away from them."
"So, I should stay away from you, too? Is that what you're saying?"
"No, we just can't be..." I throw my arms up in frustration. "We can't be loud and flashy. Fuck, Cin, you get it. I know you do. You're not stupid."
Cin's face twists in fury. "You're damn right I'm not. You think I'm going to let you dick me around like this, pretending you give a shit. I was wrong. You're just another rich daddy's boy."
"Fuck you. You don't know anything about what's going on."
"No, fuck you. You act like you’re something when you're a damn coward, hiding behind your name—"
"Shut up."
"—back to your cocklicking buddies because that's all—"
"Shut up!"
I don't let her finish. I close the distance and grab her by the shoulders roughly. My hands are tense, ready to crush her, break her, anything to get her to shut the fuck up. I stare at her, a rush of hot, pounding fury filling my head.
But she doesn't even flinch. She raises her head to meet my stare, an equally hot fire burning in her own eyes, her lips pressed tight, her nostrils flared with each mad puff of breath.
The next thing I know, we're panting into each other's mouths, our hands frantically reaching underneath each other's clothes, pulling at waistbands, unbuckling belts, unhooking straps. We don't say anything, we don't even look at each other—if anything we're avoiding each other’s eyes.
Her shorts and panties are off, my pants and boxers are off. I'm rock hard. When I reach down to touch her, she moans as my fingers brush against her wet entrance. We're both ready, and neither of us is interested in foreplay.
I push her onto the bleachers and place my head's cock against her pussy's lips. She digs her nails into the sides of my back. I grimace from the pain as I push hard into her, not gently this time. I'm taking what I want, giving her what she deserves.
She gasps, and her face twists in a flash of pain. Her nails dig into my ribs in return. She has to be making me bleed, but I don't care. I pull out nearly completely, then thrust hard into her again. She gasps again and her legs jerk together, kicking. When I try to pull out, she wraps both legs around me and force me back into her.
I attack her mouth instead, smothering her, sucking her breath out of her. She nips my tongue, bites my lip, but I don't stop wrestling her with kisses. I reach up to take a handful of hair, tugging at it to pull her face harder into mine. She responds by trying to do the same to me, but when she can't get a good enough grip on my short hair, she ends up wrapping my neck in the crook of her arm and squeezing like she's trying to strangle me from the side.
I laugh, the sound echoing and mixing with her growling and panting. I'm thrusting in and out of her again, and her body goes rigid and tense for a moment. But then she’s scratching my sides again, sucking hard on the broken skin of my lip. She flails about, and for a second, I'm worried that she's going to really hurt herself, so I let her push me over onto my back.
She mounts me with a vicious grin, like she's won. She leans forward on her elbows, digging them into the center of my chest, right on the bone, smiling wider when I grimace from the pain. I seize her torso on both sides and begin jackhammering until she falls flat on top of me, her eyes closed, her mouth open and moaning. I wrap my arms around her and crush her against my own body.
She tightens around me. Little whimpering noises escape from her mouth, but I don't let up. She's squirming, her face contorted, her moans half-turning into shrieks. She tries to claw at my face, her fingers like daggers, but I clamp her arms down to her side, still not letting up.
She screams, her body shakes, and my cock begins twitching inside her quivering pussy. A low, long grunt comes out of my mouth, and the tension inside me explodes.
For another minute, she’s still on top of me, unmoving except for her hard breathing. Finally, she lifts herself up by her arms so that she can look into my eyes. A rush of air cools the sweat between our bodies as she lifts herself partially away from me. I'm still inside her.
Her large green eyes loom over me as she speaks.
"You're still a fucking asshole," Cin says.
I give her a small smile. "I know."
We go our separate ways. Cin heads back to the scholarship dorms, and I head over to the parking lot. I've just set foot on the asphalt when I hear the light patter of footsteps running towards me from my left. I turn, a grin on my face, thinking it's Cin.
I frown. It's Aurora.
"What are you doing here?" I ask.
Something's off. I look around the parking lot, but there are no other cars. It's mostly empty here, and I would have noticed her coming from any other direction. Unless she came from the direction of the field...it doesn't make sense. Aurora has no reason to be out here at this hour. How long was she here?
Aurora holds something up in her hand. It's her phone.
"Look what I have,” she says.
I step forward and reach for her phone, but she pulls it away. I'm not interested in playing with Aurora. I lunge and grab her by the wrist, dragging her toward me. I take the phone out of her hand.
"Ow," Aurora scowls and rubs her wrist. Her scowl quickly turns into a smile, though.
"What'd you do?"
"Take a look," Aurora says with that annoyingly smug face she makes sometimes.
I glance down at her phone. It has a triangle in the middle of the screen indicating that a video's loaded. I tap the screen, and the video plays. It's a couple, fucking each other on what looks like...the bleachers.
No. Not any couple. It's us, me and Cin.
"The fuck!"
I hurl the phone at the ground. The screen shatters, sending small pieces of glass over the dark asphalt. I stomp on the phone, grinding my heel into it over and over, then kick the remaining mess into a clump of tall grass.
I look at Aurora, but she's still smiling. "Doesn't matter. I've uploaded it somewhere safe already."
My body quivers with rage. I grab Aurora by the throat. She sputters, choking as I squeeze. Her eyes go wide with fright, but I ease up before I do something I'd really regret.
"Get rid of it." My thumb presses into her jugular.
"No," Aurora gasps. "You should have thought twice before sleeping with that slut."
I want to choke the life out of her. I really do, but I'm not a psychopath, even if Aurora is.
I let go, turn my back on her, and walk towards my car.
"She's trash!" Aurora yells after me. "She'll get what she deserves!"
My hands curl into fists on their own, but I force myself to ignore Aurora and get into my car. Once inside, I roll up the windows, then call Cin.
She picks up on the third ring.
"Grayson?"
"Cin...I..." I don't know how to tell her about what Aurora did.
"I don't believe it," Cin says. "Is the great Grayson Voss speechless? I mean I did fuck your brains out, but who knew—"
"Cin," I say softly.
She must hear the trouble in my voice, because she immediately quiets down. "What happened?" she asks.
"Damn it, Cin. This is what I warned you about." I'm gripping the phone so hard that it's shaking in my hand. I force myself to relax. "It's Aurora. She...fucking hell, Cin. She saw us just now. She's got it on video. I don't know how."
For a long time, there's no reply, only silence.
"Cin?" I ask.
"I...I..." Cin's voice is shaking, like she's about to cry. "Fuck, oh god, fuck!" she whispers harshly.
"I tried to warn you—"
She hangs up.
32
Cin
When I was in grade school, I found a puppy living
behind the house of my mother’s friend. I brought it milk, I bought it a small bag of dog chow with my plastic bottle money, and I left out my sweaters for it to sleep on. It ate everything I gave it, but it was always too shy to come out.
It turned out that my mother’s friend was actually her dealer.
And it wasn’t a puppy. It was a raccoon.
The day I tried to grab the “puppy” and found an aggressive raccoon trying to tear up my arm, I learned three important lessons. The first was that my mother could throw a raccoon several feet. The second was that raccoons are largely harmless unless they’re acting in self-defense. The third was that if I think I found something worth nurturing, it’ll probably end up being a snarling bastard with sharp claws trying to tear me to shreds.
In my room, I stare out at campus, where the sunlight is slowly spreading across it. Grayson tricked and broke me, but I have no one to blame but myself. I knew exactly what he was when we met. I let myself get wound up in the fantasy that he was something better and that I could tame him.
I convinced myself that I had some power when all I had was my body for him to use.
I hear a rustle of noise right outside my door. I’m certain Aurora is making sure that the bullying reaches an all-time peak. They’ll put something disgusting on my door, knowing Diana never comes around here. I don’t care anymore.
Diana. Grayson is free to fuck her however often he wants.
My phone vibrates. I check it.
It’s my mother. Of course. When there’s hell, she’d inevitably come running to blame me.
I ignore it. As the call ends, the phone starts vibrating again. Still my mother.
If I answer, she’ll rant at me for ten minutes about how I’m not measuring up. If I don’t answer, she’ll rant at my voicemail for half an hour about how I’m a shitty daughter, then rant at me later about how I’m not measuring up.
“Hey,” I answer.
“Did you win over that Voss guy?”